Help with staining and finishing house trim

[Himark]

I have a home with new trim that I am going to do the paint and stain. Its been some years since I have done this and I went to Sherwin Williams yesterday to inquire about the best products to use to do the stain and finish.

In the past (15 years ago) I was a builder and we had a painter that we used on our high end homes that put the stain on then used a sanding sealer and two coats of finish. His work was always slick and smooth.

We used another guy that would skip the sanding sealer and go straight to two wet coats of finish. Work looked good but when you felt it, it was slightly rough or just not as slick.

Well I asked about this at Sherwin yesterday and they looked at me like I was from Mars. They said "nobody uses a sanding sealer anymore" they also said it would be glass smooth.

I question this but hey maybe things are better now. What do you pro's use out there? any advice appreciated.

 

[newmy1]

Easy, outsource it.


Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk

 

[xrated]

A pro I am not, but each year I try and refinish 1-3 peices of furniture.

What I have had the best results with was sanding up to 220 (don't see the need for that with trim), then stain and let dry until there is no tacky feel at all.

Next up is a coat of wipe on poly, dry and hit with 220 hand block. Wipe with a dry rag and do second coat. I have always had a very smooth nice feel when I do that. I have done pieces and skipped the poly and well the feel smooth it isn't near as slick feeling as with a couple coats of poly with sanding in between.

Bugs me to know end when you see expensive refinished stuff and you run your hand across it and feel small bumps/sticky feeling areas on something priced over 1000 bucks.

 

[snowmobiler]

laquer,sponge,laquer,sponge,laquer.beer time.to get glass you need to sponge smooth between coats and % of sheen.

 

[koschak]

Lightly finish sand along the grain with 220 grit sandpaper to remove and rough spots or surface dirt first. The yellow 3M sheets hold up better than most other brands. Cut the 9x11 sheet in in thirds then fold that piece in to thirds so it has some strength to it and use each side as the others wear out. One full sheet is enough for a whole trim job in most homes. I prefer using minwax stains as they tend to give less of a blotched finish than others based off my experience. Apply the desired stain color and let fully dry. Next step is to apply a varnish. I use precatalyzed laquer, medium build, from Sherwin Williams. IF you have a spray gun for lacquers use that, you can find a decent cup gun for under 80 bucks. Apply two light coats, let dry in between and after. Lightly sand to knock down the raised grain and little air bubbles until the finish is smooth but do not sand through it where you affect the stain color. Blow it off, some white dust will be in the grain but the next coat of lacquer will dissolve it and "melt" in. Apply another good coat, sand, blow off and apply the final coat. It may sound like a long process but an eight foot piece of base trim should only take about 40 seconds to sand, including getting the ridges and milled steps in the piece.

 

[Jaynelson]

I just did my base boards and window trim for 1/2 the mainfloor. Did light sanding, the stain and then 3 coats of varathane clear. Very light sanding between the coats of clear. Worked out great, can't see needing anymore than that. The clear dries fast so A few coats is no big deal. A wide Foam brush was the ticket for layin it down

 

[m8magicandmystery]

my stains are rough and crusty...


oh sorry...i thought you were talking underwear stains...

 

[snowmobiler]

they make a thing called toilet paper nowadays